(Samantha Heathcote -- The Beacon)
By The Beacon Editorial Board
Every year ASUP spends part of our student government fees, amounting to almost $20,000, on capital improvements for the university. This week a list of nine projects was whittled down to five, as ASUP senators voiced student preferences.
In considering the final five projects, it is important to think about which projects will improve the lives of the most students.
The four projects taken off the list included: library improvements, replacing the chalkboards with white boards in Buckley Center, a large-scale composting tumbler and improvements to the crosswalk between the baseball field and Fields and Shoenfeldt halls.
The five remaining projects include: adding air blade dryers in bathrooms, adding more water refilling stations to buildings, sound equipment for CPB and KDUP, new ventilation in The Cove and adding more seating in the East Side Quad.
The addition of air blade hand dryers would be a step toward increasing the sustainability of the campus; however, what is the point of installing dryers if the paper towel dispensers remain? When the new dryers were installed in Shiley Hall during its renovation, paper towel dispensers were also installed. Many students still use the paper towels instead of the air dryer. Therefore, it is unlikely that installing more dryers would help conserve paper towels.
Adding more water bottle refilling stations would be helpful to students and faculty. These new refilling stations make it easier to fill water bottles. With the ban on bottled water enacted last year, these refilling stations provide an alternative to buying bottled water elsewhere. However, since there are already several refilling stations, The Beacon believes this would be a futile capital improvements project.
Sound system improvements for KDUP and CPB could be valuable to students for listening to the campus radio station and attending CPB events. However, these improvements would not have as great an impact as other possible improvements would because they would have occasional benefits instead of benefits that students could access every day. Moreover, CPB already receives nearly $60,000 from the ASUP budget.
Ventilation for The Cove would benefit students who smell like food hours after they leave. This improvement would benefit a large amount of students who frequent The Cove as a main student social and eating area.
Finally, the addition of more seating in the East Side Quad area would benefit a limited number of students, mostly ones who reside on the east side of campus. This project also would seem to have less impact than the other projects being considered, and would be used infrequently because of weather.
The list of capital improvements includes five projects, that would to an extent, benefit students. Students should make sure to make their top choices known to the executive board which makes the final decisions on capital improvement spending.
Although some of these projects have merit, The Beacon feels that this is not an adequate top five list of possible improvements to campus. We feel that more ideas should be considered, such as installing more outlets around campus, improving drainage on campus, creating another safe crosswalk for students across Willamette Boulevard near Shipstad Hall and reinstalling the soda fountains in The Cove.
The capital improvements fund is a large amount of money and The Beacon feels that none of these projects are worth it.
